Saltwater sport fishing typically consists of anglers positioned on boats that are then dispatched to prolific offshore fishing areas. One useful method of catching game fish involves a technique known as trolling. Trolling is the practice of baiting hooks that are subsequently lowered and dragged behind the stern of a slow moving vessel by the angler. In order to increase the chances of hooking a fish, it is beneficial to have as many lines in the water as possible. To a game fish, the wake of a vessel generally creates the appearance of a large school of smaller fish to be preyed upon. The angler can strategically simulate bands of straggling or displaced fish from the school with numerous baited lines. These simulated straggling fish are misinterpreted to be the disadvantaged and weakened fish that game fish frequently utilize as a food source.
As stated above, an angler will often drag as many baited lines from behind the boat as possible, thereby increasing the chances of hooking a fish. However, as more baited lines are used, the probability of the lines becoming entangled with one another increases. This is a problem that occurs in a variety of situations, such as with a narrow beam boat or any boat that is in the process of being turned. As a result, sport fishing outriggers have been developed to assist in keeping the various lines separated. However, the positioning and lowering of outrigger booms presents additional problems of rotational movement and preventing the booms from contacting the water. This problem has brought forth various attempts to create mechanisms to rotate the boom and that prevent the boom from contacting the water.
Outriggers consist of a long pole, or boom, having one end secured to the boat with deployment resulting from an outward lateral extension of the boom from a side of the boat. Baited fishing lines often have integrated release clips that are attached to the outriggers, thereby providing sufficient separation between the lines to prevent tangling. When a fish is hooked on the bait line, the line clip releases from the outrigger, thus allowing the angler to reel in the fish.
Outriggers are required to be freely stowable to a position beside the boat for close quarters operation and docking. For practicality, the outrigger should be swung laterally outward to its deployed position. The prior art includes various types of mounting schemes including outrigger units for horizontal and vertical mounting, on center consoles, flybridges, half towers, tuna towers, radar arches, and/or T-tops. Prior patents disclose a variety of methods for mounting, deploying, and locking such outriggers into place (see e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,445,102 and 3,724,791), with each having distinct drawbacks. Such drawbacks include overall mechanical complexity; powered operation; non-durable construction; and/or ineffective position adjustment and locking mechanisms that slip and/or wear out.
Although the prior art discloses a vast array of mechanisms and mounting locations for outrigger mounts, the prior art fails to disclose or otherwise teach a simple and durable outrigger system having an effective boom locking mechanism, a boom stop that prevents excessive lowering, and a positionable arm that allows for both vertical and rotational movement of the boom. This is of particular importance with respect to the excessive forces experienced by an outrigger mount during operation. Both wind and movement (of the boat) impart forces on to a boom, thereby increasing the stresses on the outrigger mount of the boom. Generally, the longer the boom, the greater the stresses at the outrigger mount. If the position adjustment and/or locking mechanism were to succumb to these increases in stress, the outrigger might swing in an unrestricted manner during a critical maneuver or operation, with potentially disastrous or life-threatening results to passengers of the outrigger equipped boat or other surrounding vessels. Accordingly, an outrigger assembly with a novel position adjustment and locking mechanism is disclosed that alleviates this and other shortcomings of the prior art.
As described in the aforementioned prior art, the mounting and operation of a conventional outrigger system can be complicated. Booms of considerable length must be stored in an upright position to allow the vessel to pass beneath low bridges, as well as for close quarters maneuvering. Similarly, should the boat pass under or through an object that limits clearance, the boom must be vertically lowered and/or rotated in from the extended position on a non-vertical plane. Preferably the outrigger mount not only rotates in the non-vertical plane in a 360° arrangement from a position on the vessel, but also allows the boom attachment arm to be easily raised and lowered in a vertical plane. Thus, in the operation of a one way of several conventional outrigger booms, the boom is inserted into a vertically adjustable boom attachment arm, usually as part of an elbow, and locked into position with a locking pull pin. The outrigger boom is then rotated in a non-vertical plane to a point determined by the user. Additionally, either before or after the boom is rotated in the non-vertical plane, the user may raise or lower the boom within a vertical plane with respect to the outrigger mount.
Accordingly, what is lacking is an outrigger assembly having an effective boom locking mechanism, and a positionable arm that allows for both vertical and horizontal rotational movement of the boom to eliminate the complicated and problematic outrigger mounts commonly used to support outrigger booms.